(photo from evolife.com)

A pair of glasses, a button, a watch, or a hand bag, all the above goods can be transformed into spy cameras. A spy camera allows the user to capture secret video footage. They are disguised as ordinary objects you might find in areas of your home or business. The camera hidden inside one of those everyday items is capable of capturing video footage of activity that occurs in front of it, without alerting the target person that they are being recorded.

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Electronic spy cameras have start popularizing in Zhongguancun since 2005. Zhongguancun is a technology hub in Haidian District, Beijing, China. It is geographically situated in a band between the northwestern Third Ring Road and the northwestern Fourth Ring Road of Beijing City. Zhongguancun is very well known in China, and is often referred to as "China's Silicon Valley".

At Dinghao Electronic Mall Building B in Zhongguancun, when you mention you want to buy a spy camera, a guide will take you to the appropriate store. Sellers told our journalist that at least three spy cameras could be sold every day. But they refused to disclose the profit of a spy camera.

Our journalist visited several stores and found there were no instructions or information of manufacture factories attached to the packages of these spy cameras. In addition, these spy cameras are not placed on the counter for sale in broad daylight. Sellers always lock them in cabinets. Only when a buyer asks for a spy camera, the seller will take them out.

A seller said: "There are no instruction or manufacture factory printed on the packages. If the camera has a problem, you can return it to me." Because the operation methods of these products are very much the same, the specific parameters of those spy cameras usually depend on the seller's estimate, as there are no illustrations to introduce the functions of these cameras.

As for the attitudes towards spy cameras, many Chinese female citizens express their concern. "We don't feel safe in public bathrooms and restrooms." They said.